You are going off of cap friendly cap predictions. Its a great site for fan reference but it doesnt paint 100% accurate picture of a teams cap. There are several paper/roster transactions that teams/Leafs can do from day to day that will solve these issues.

They don't really need a 23 man roster with the Marlies being as close as they are. The real problem is that there are not many waiver exempt players in the organization this year. I expect that they will lose a couple through that mechanic over the course of the season.

A 21 man roster is just fine. Anything less than that is really pushing it on the lean side. They will probably run a leaner roster anyways to try and accrue some cap dollars for later in the season and specifically the trade deadline.

Kerfoot isn't going anywhere. He is one of "Dubas's Boys". He'd already be gone if he weren't.

A 22 man roster with a 7th Dman is almost imperative. Just trade Mikheyev with no cap in return then it's done. Then Kase and Engvall can stay. At season opener, if a player with a cap is on LTIR, and is replaced with a 750,000, that might do it also.